Chicago architects’ adaptable design wins World Expo competition

The contest to win the design commission for the 2017 World Expo exhibition in Kazakhstan has been won by an architecture firm from Chicago.

The winning entry from Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, who are sometimes referred to as AS+GG, saw the pair defeat a number of top architects, such as Zaha Hadid. Smith and Gill have also been involved in the designing of what is set to be the world’s tallest building in Saudi Arabia.

An exhibition centre covering 25 hectares will be the main construction on the 173-hectare site. Its design prioritises recycling, so nothing will need to be demolished after the event is over. Instead, the interiors of the buildings will be adapted or dismantled to ensure they remain useful well into the future.

The Kazakhstan Pavilion at the heart of the exhibition will be a futuristic spherical construction. Other structures surrounding the centrepiece will have elongated, curved shapes. Schools, housing, parks, shops and healthcare facilities will also be developed on the Astana site.

The chairman of the competition’s technical committee, Jeremy Rifkin, described the winning design as the most practical artistically, architecturally and in terms of its sustainability.

As the title of the 2017 Expo will be ‘Future Energy’, it is appropriate that the power for the exhibition will all come from renewable sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels.

For those in Merseyside who like the idea of creating sustainable buildings which can be adapted for future use, architects on the Wirral should be able to create some appropriate designs.